This LGBTQ Pride month, we at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) reflect on the history of the LGBTQ rights movement and reaffirm our commitment to fight for LGBTQ immigrants’ right to be recognized as members of the U.S. community, to live safely and without fear of being ripped from their families and communities, and to seek protection from the oppression they faced in their home countries. Through our work in NIJC's LGBT Immigrant Rights Initiative, we regularly represent queer and trans immigrants, advocate for the end of queer and trans detention, and collaborate with grassroots organizations to support the LGBT immigrant rights movement. Because of our work advocating for LGBTQ immigrants from around the world, we understand the dire situation of LGBTQ people in places where their very identities are criminalized and Pride events are banned or violently disrupted, making those seeking to live openly and advocate for the rights of their communities particularly vulnerable to arrest or violent attacks. We work not only with asylum seekers—those fleeing persecution in other countries—but with those seeking U visas, for the victims of crimes and violence perpetrated by U.S. citizens and permanent residents. While the United States is not a perfect haven for LGBT people, and many people face violence just for existing, it is nevertheless a place where they can find advocates and community in the open.  In a recent blog post, NIJC Avodah Fellow Sky Karp writes about a client who recently for the first time in his life got to freely wave the Pride flag in public: “Hearing him speak, I heard nothing but happiness and pride at finally getting to celebrate who he is openly.” As Sky reflected on their fellowship at NIJC, they drew from their own experience as an historian to explain how the legacy of colonialism and the strict gender binary it imposed in nations that previously had celebrated queer identities still lingers generations after nations regained independence. LGBTQ migrants around the world now rely on the asylum protections offered by the United States and other Western governments in order to survive, and even those protections are increasingly in peril.  We celebrate our clients and LGBTQ immigrants everywhere who, despite these struggles, fight for the rights of LGBTQ people in their communities by daring to live their truths and tell their stories. One such individual is Aleksei, a brilliant young filmmaker working on his feature film about the lives of LGBTQ migrants in former Soviet bloc countries. Through this work, Aleksei wants to help people to understand the experience of being queer in Russia and in other post-Soviet countries, and people living these traumas to heal through sharing their stories. Aleksei believes that film and storytelling can help to change the world, one small step at a time. NIJC intern Madeleine Paulson wrote a profile of Aleksei this month. Like Aleksei, the power of LGBTQ people’s stories is a common thread through a lot of NIJC’s LGBT team’s work – from the narratives in asylum applications, to immigration court hearing testimony, to the advocacy roles many NIJC clients tend to step into during and once their own cases conclude, turning their attention to support others who are seeking justice. We have been privileged to partner with LGBTQ migrant-led groups like TransLatin@ Coalition and fierce trans women like Kelly, Alejandra, and Gretta to uplift our clients’ stories and to demand an end to trans detention and a more just immigration system for all. |
